Not the Right One
by biomechanical
Summary: Stranded in 1869, Jack Harkness travels the slow path until the day he finds the Doctor, his Doctor. Twenty-one years later, Jack winds up in London and witnesses a young woman pull a ladder out of thin air. Of course, he has to investigate and follows the woman up a spiral staircase to the clouds. DW Snowmen. No slash. One-shot.


**A/N: This is a short story taking place during the 'Snowmen' episode with Jack seeing a young woman pull a ladder out of thin air one day during Christmas of 1890. This is only a one shot. Enjoy!**

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1890.

The delirium of alcohol weighed on his feet forcing him to stagger down the dank, shadowed alley. Barely able to stand up straight, the drunken man fell against the moss-covered brick wall and yet somehow managed to remain on his feet.

He drew in a deep breath and waited for the spinning world to slow down enough for him to continue on his way. Somewhere deep in the recesses of his booze-fueled brain, the drive to return to his hovel of a flat remained strong enough to keep him going.

As he stepped out of the alley and onto the street, he barely noticed the disgusted looks on the faces of the people who made a great effort of stepping around the drunkard. No, the finely dressed men and the dainty women that accompanied them frowned upon the downtrodden and drunken wastes that made up London's lower class.

After blinking in the light of day that stung his tired eyes, the drunkard tugged on the ends of his dingy overcoat and straightened his tattered bowler hat in a mock attempt at dignity, and began making his way down the street.

While he walked, he let his mind wander. Even though it had been twenty years since the battle against the Daleks on Satellite 5, it felt like a long distant memory. Something happened to him there. Something that changed his life forever, and only one man had the answer.

"Doctor!"

The man stopped in his tracks and his racing heart began to clear the alcoholic haze that clouded his mind. His eyes searched for the source of the female voice that called out that name. His hopes raised for moment as a woman ran past him toward another man walking down the street.

The drunk focused on that man until he realized that the man was not the person he sought. With a depressed sigh, he let his shoulders fall and shook his head slightly. He was stranded on the slow path and it was about time he'd learn to accept that.

That was when he witnessed something strange.

There, in the park across the street, a young woman wearing a familiar expression of adventure and discovery, jumped up and grabbed a hold of something that shouldn't have been there, but most certainly was. The woman pulled down a ladder from thin air and began climbing until she too, vanished before the drunk's very eyes.

"What?" The drunk mumbled to himself as he willed his tired body into action.

He lurched toward the park, but in his haste, he didn't see the gentleman that stepped around him. The two men unceremoniously collided with each other and while the gentleman merely staggered back a few steps, the drunkard fell flat on his back onto the cold snowy ground.

"Watch where you're going, wretch!" The gentleman sneered down at the drunk. "What is your name, sir?"

The drunk, propped himself up on his elbows as he looked up at the other man, and smiled. "Captain Jack Harkness," he said and continued to climb to his wobbly feet. Perhaps he wasn't quite sober after all.

"Captain of what?" The other man shouted angrily. "The bottle? I ought to have you arrested!"

Jack, now successfully standing on his own two feet, brushed snowflakes off his coat. "I'm sorry, sir," he said and looked around the angry man. There was still no sign of the woman. "Now, if you'll excuse me..." Without waiting for the other man to reply, Jack darted out in the street, narrowly avoiding a trotting horse and carriage.

Feeling a bit more sober due to the thrill of investigating the unknown and unexplained, Jack hurried along the sidewalk toward the break in the fence that lead into the park. With a renewed sense of purpose, he marched up to the tree where the young woman had stood when she pulled down the ladder.

He looked up with a grin growing on his face, a feat that had not happen for some years now. Placing his feet on the same place the woman stood, thanks to the footprints in the snow, Jack jumped up and wrapped his fingers around the first rung of the ladder.

Jack climbed up the staircase slowly at first, but he started feeling like his old self once again. The woman was already well above him and his sure-footed steps became a sure-footed jog. He ignored how the spiral staircase wound impossibly up into the night sky. He wasn't worried about falling in the least. After all, how could one who couldn't die have fear of anything as trivial as a staircase to the clouds?

Finally, he reached the top, but he stayed low to peek over the top step. He didn't know what to expect. All this reminded him of the story, 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and he was prepared to make a hasty escape in case he found an angry ogre up here.

What Jack saw instead brought uncontrollable tears of overwhelming joy to his eyes. That big blue beautiful box stared back at him with the soft glow of the signs that he didn't realize he'd missed so much until now.

He'd found the Doctor at last.

Jack was about to run inside the TARDIS, since he still had the key, and give that crazy madman the largest hug the Time Lord ever had. But he noticed something different about the TARDIS... that St. John's ambulance logo on the door was not there before.

Then the woman appeared from around back of the time machine. She paused at the door and raised her small fist. She hesitated at first, but then she gave the door a few quick raps. Suddenly, in what seemed to be a loss of nerve, she dashed for the stairs.

Not wanting to be seen because there would be too many questions, Jack rolled over the handrail of the staircase and hung over the side.

The woman flew down the staircase and thankfully did not see Jack at all.

Jack climbed back over the handrail with relative ease, but stayed low. Peeking over the top step again, he saw a man in a Victorian outfit with a befuddled young face step out of the TARDIS. This man looked around the cloud platform searching for the source of the unexpected knock, then headed back inside the time ship, closing the door behind him.

The man's face was different, but Jack knew that was the Doctor. There was no mistaking that mischievous look in the Time Lord's eyes, even though those eyes seemed sad somehow. Jack wondered what happened. He wondered which incarnation of the Doctor he was seeing. Past? Future? There was no telling without asking, and Jack wasn't about to at this point.

This Doctor was not the right one.

.

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End.

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**A/N: Kind of sad, huh? Jack will just have to keep on waiting. Let me know what you think. I do appreciate reviews. Thank you for reading!**


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